Day One 2 for iOS and Mac — First Impressions

I first started using Day One Classic1 in 2011. At least that’s what my first entry shows — I have a “Hello World” post on 29 December 2011. I have never used it on a daily basis, preferring to post most of my thoughts on Twitter instead, but I do try to write down all of my personal stuff in there — mostly all the bad stuff as far I can see. It has become my own way of dealing with all the negativity in the world and in my life. I admit that I have been writing less recently, mostly due to lack of time, but every since Day One 2.0 debuted on Mac and iOS, I have been using it every single day. Obviously part of that is due to the novelty of having and using new software, but I honestly hope I’ll be able to keep it up.

What’s New?

Day One 2.0 has regressed in a number of areas — the ability to ‘Publish’ posts on social media is temporarily gone for example — but since it has been rewritten from the ground up (and took two years to do), there are numerous changes to the UI, and new functions too. Most of the old stuff will soon be back too. I am especially fond of the new Maps view, which shows where I was in the world when creating my entries.

no more iCloud / Dropbox sync — Day One rolled out its own sync solution, which naturally has its pros and cons

I really like the Maps and Photo views

posts can now take up to ten images instead of one

Day One can store up to ten separate journals and they can be colour coded, and named

There are more features coming soon:

Publish 2.0

Apple ID login

IFTTT support

favourite locations

encryption

an activity feed

the ability to print your journal in book form

Day One 2.0 is as simple as it ever was — that hasn’t changed — and I found it to be more of a joy to use than the original version. I will have a nice little test for it in the next few weeks though, putting it through its paces as a travel journal. In the meantime, its still the best personal journal app out there and I heartily recommend giving it a try. I attribute this to the fact that despite being easy to use, it has a multitude of options — filters, tags, etc. — which should appeal to whatever workflow a user is comfortable with.

Day One 2 is currently on sale, which will end soon. If you’re on the fence, now is the time go get it — the prices will double sometime next week.

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